Tackling Social and Gender Inequalities During COVID-19

This blog post was written by Irene Arvay, Barbara Auricchio and Luciana Fainstain.

The effects of COVID-19 are excluding some social sectors more severely than others. This pandemic threatens to aggravate structural patterns of inequality in Latin American and Caribbean countries, both in terms of gender and exclusion of some population groups.

Public policy actions to address the pandemic should simultaneously ensure universal measures but also targeted interventions. Governments must provide benefits for all citizens with the largest possible coverage using a proactive logic, but also focus on certain affirmative actions. This means restricting and directing certain policies or programs to target groups living in deprivation, exclusion or vulnerability.

COVID-19 poses an increased health risk for people with pre-existing pathologies or comorbidity, the elderly, healthcare personnel and pregnant women. This includes other population segments that have been severely impacted by pandemic control measures:

• Children in low socio-economic groups who often receive meals at school and are now at risk of malnutrition due to school closures.
• Women :
• Because of their gender roles (family care), they have higher levels of exposure to infected people.
• Due to confinement measures, they face greater tension between work and family life, e.g. a greater burden of reproductive and unpaid work.
• As a result of “forced cohabitation,” they are more exposed to gender-based and domestic violence.
• They work as housekeepers and/or caregivers, often with no social security due to the informal nature of their jobs, and subordinated to their employers’ unilateral decisions regarding mobility and work.
• Informal sector workers (with a majority of women) have lost their income, as a result of social confinement measures, as well as lack of unemployment insurance and coverage from social protection systems.
• Rural populations and indigenous peoples, due to the low coverage of healthcare services, remoteness or lack of services tailored to their worldviews, are at risk of being excluded from immediate responses to the pandemic.
• People in prison, because of inadequate sanitary conditions, overcrowding and restricted access to medical services.
• Irregular migrants, who are excluded from social protection systems. As part of this group, in times of crisis, women are at greater risk of human trafficking and different types of violence.
• Low-income, single-parent families, due to confinement and school closures, are facing the loss of their only source of income, as well as school meals for their children. Long-term loss of income entails high risks of increased malnutrition, poverty or destitution.

Social inclusion, gender equity and attention to vulnerable groups are therefore key factors and cross-cutting issues in pandemic control strategies and policies. Focusing on these factors and issues could lead to better and more efficient results in the context of COVID-19, as well as prevent further social exclusion.

Against this backdrop, it is important for pandemic control public policies to include the following measures:

• Ensuring safety of healthcare personnel and recruitment of the necessary staff to meet the growing demand for healthcare services.
• Developing communication campaigns considering various, innovative media and channels in order to have official information reach isolated population groups living in the most vulnerable conditions.
• Involving women’s organizations, trade unions or representative bodies in decision-making about interventions as they are hit hardest by the pandemic.
• Investing in healthcare infrastructure considering proximity healthcare and social care services.
• Implementing special protection measures for caregivers, in an effort to alleviate unpaid workload and exposure of women to infectious agents.
• Ensuring continuity and reinforcing the capabilities of essential violence response services for women and girls.
• Adopting direct compensation measures for informal workers, including household workers, migrants and most affected sectors.
• Developing economic recovery measures for women and low-income groups.

To make this possible, we must ensure availability of data disaggregated by sex, age, ethnicity, geographic area and other relevant sociodemographic variables in order to understand the effects of COVID-19, and ensure a budget to respond to the differential needs of men, women, girls, boys and groups living in vulnerable conditions.

Several countries in the region are implementing measures that aim to mitigate these social impacts derived from the pandemic. Examples include: Panama implemented the “Panama Solidarity Plan” to subsidize workers in the informal sector. Argentina expanded measures to protect the working population and prevent gender-based violence. Colombia provided a temporary subsidy to people without formal jobs and who are not part of other social projects. Chile has a Contingency Plan to ensure continuity of care, protection and reparation for women victims of violence.

In the coming months countries in the region are challenged to move forward and further mainstream social inclusion and gender equity into their actions, to ensure that social and gender inequalities are not exacerbated in the medium and long term.